June 8th – 11th 2022
ADVANCED FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY AND FOOD STYLING RETREAT
With Kimberly EspinelMIDSUMMER FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL STORY TELLING RETREAT, FINLAND
Want to learn how to create food photos and videos full of story and emotion?
EAGER TO ESCAPE TO THE FINNISH COUNTRYSIDE AND IMMERSE YOURSELF IN A RICH AND NOURISHING CREATIVE EXPERIENCE WITH LIKE-MINDED FOODIES AND PHOTOGRAPHERS?
Ready to style gatherings and build your portfolio with food, travel, lifestyle and landscape shots and videos?
Then listen up because this special 3-day retreat may be just what you’re after...
June 8th – 11th 2022
Me, Viola Virtamo and Kimberly Espinel will be hosting a 3-day retreat in Southern Finland, surrounded by beautiful secluded woodlands, stunning waterfronts and quaint historic villages. This is a learning experience like noother where heart-felt creatives who want to delve deeper into food photography, styling and video creation can come together and make the most of the gorgeous crisp, natural Scandinavian light. It's your chance to develop an eye for lifestyle and landscape photography too and build a well-rounded, gorgeous portfolio. This is an intimate small group retreat where you’ll receive tons of support, guidance and encouragement to explore the edges of your creativity and visual story telling.
Want to know more? Then keep reading…
Scroll down to see the gallery of the retreat location!
MIDSUMMER FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY RETREAT SCHEDULE
Please note that the schedule is an approximately outline of the retreat days and teaching sessions may varydepending on the weather and the needs of the group. 
DAY 1
- Arrival and welcome drinks -
You are invited to arrive from 2pm onwards to settle into your accommodation. From there, we look forward to meeting you at 7pm for introductions, drinks and lots of chatter about food and photography.
DAY 2
Following breakfast, you will be collected from your accommodation and taken to Viola’s countryside cottage. In the morning we will style and photograph sweet foods with lots of hands on practice.
- Lunch break -
In the afternoon we will venture into the surrounding woods and develop our eye for outdoor and lifestyle photography and video creation.
Thereafter, you will be taken back to your accommodation.
DAY 3
Following breakfast, you will be collected from your accommodation and taken to Viola’s countryside cottage. In the morning we will style and photograph savoury foods with lots of hands on practice and space to explore composition, natural lighting and visual story telling.
- Lunch break -
In the afternoon we will venture into a local historical villages for sightseeing and to help you develop an eye for travel photography and video creation.
- Break -
Joint evening meal.
DAY 4
Following breakfast, you will be collected from your accommodation and taken to Viola’s countryside cottage. In the morning we will explore editing our videos in Premiere Pro before completing the teaching session with a photoshoot in the garden.
- Lunch break -
You will be taken back to your accommodation as the retreat concludes.
YOUR TEACHERS
Kimberly Espinel
Kimberly is an award winning food photographer, stylist, blogger and educator, having taught 1000s of students from around the world food photography and styling. She runs a successful food photography business and she’d love to teach you all she knows. Kimberly adores playing with light and shadow, creating dark and moody as well as light and bright shots. She’s known for her playful approach to colour theory and composition and supporting students in reaching their creative potential.
VIOLA MINERVA VIRTAMO
I’m a Finnish lifestyle photographer and videographer, specialising in food and products. In addition, I also work as a graphic designer, director and food stylist and I’ve written 6 books of my own. I’m very passionated about telling visual stories through my work and finding inspiration from the nordic light and nature. Running both a lifestyle publishing house and my own one-woman business, I believe passion, creativity and curiosity for learning new are the key elements for a successful business and happy life.
RETREAT FAQS
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This retreat is geared towards more advanced food photographers and food bloggers. Nonetheless, we are keeping this retreat small and intimate with a 3/1 student to teacher ratio so that everyone’s learning needs can be attended to. As this retreat is designed for more seasoned creatives you need to own a DSLR or mirrorless camera with video recording functions and be confident shooting in manual mode to get the most out of this experience. You do not need to be experienced in video creation though as this will be taught from filming to editing, during the retreat.
If you’re not sure whether this retreat is for you, please contact us. We'd be happy to answer any queries you might have.
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You will need to arrange your own transport to and from the retreat location on Wednesday, June 18th/Saturday June 11th respectively. We will arrange transport to and from your accommodation to the teaching venue for the duration of the retreat and this is included in your retreat package.
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Included in the retreat experience are 3 nights (Wednesday night, Thursday night and Friday night) shared accommodation with single bedrooms or shared bedrooms all with shared bathroom facilities in a beautiful AirBnB lake-side cottage in Southern Finland.
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All your breakfasts, lunches and snacks throughout the day are included. The retreat also includes welcome drinks (Wednesday evening) and one joint evening meal (Friday).
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Your accommodation is located in stunning and tranquil country side about 1.5 hours drive away from Helsinki. Most of the teaching sessions will take place in my countryside cottage. We will arrange transport to and from your accommodation to the teaching venue during the duration of the retreat.
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The food provided during the retreat will be vegetarian. If you have any dietary restrictions, allergies etc., please don’t hesitate to get in touch and we’ll be happy to discuss your needs further.
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Due to the logistics of this retreat, we do not offer refunds. Hence, we recommend you make sure the workshop dates fit into your schedule and advise you book travel insurance too.
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We sure do. Please contact us and we’ll send that through as quickly as we can.
MIDSUMMER FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY AND VISUAL STORY TELLING RETREAT, FINLAND
From £1997
(early bird offer, valid until 01/04/22)
Please contact me or Kimberly to receive further information or want to book your spot.
COVID GUIDELINES
We ask that you complete a lateral flow test no more than 48 hours before the start of the retreat. This test will need to be negative in order to participate in the retreat.
Masks are not mandatory (unless government guidelines change), though you are free to wear one if you wish.
Should you test positive and be unable to participate in the retreat, you will be welcome to pass your place on to someone else, but please note that refunds will not be able to be provided.
THIS REREAT IS UNFORTUNATELY SOLD OUT, BUT STAY TUNED FOR MORE RETREATS IN THE FUTURE!
GALLERY
All pictures taken in our retreat location!
